Reminiscing about a case in 1960s Austin….
Up until 60 years ago Austin, Texas had only one TV station (channel 7 CBS) owned by the President Lyndon Johnson family business.
Luckily, after several years of consumer pressure overcoming LBJ’s reluctance, the FCC granted a license for a new 2nd TV station (either ABC or NBC - I don’t remember) which quickly went on the air.
Several months later one of the new station’s news reporters went on the air documenting a scandal whereby a group of local and state democrat politicians used insider information to buy up hundreds of acres of nearby rural land cheaply before announcing that the City of Austin was going to purchase the property to build a huge power plant and a lake for cooling purposes. Also to include a park.
Of course the City bought the land from the crooked politicians for triple the price they paid for it a few months earlier before the announcement.
It caused quite a backlash of criticism among the citizenry, but local media went silent when several months later the FCC mysteriously and without much comment refused to renew that TV station’s license to operate…and it went off the air.
Ever since then, it seems that Austin media “investigative reporters” have been afraid to push any truthful news of several scandals of city property purchases, building projects, massive social programs for the homeless…etc